Материал: 1989
Example: I prefer reading paperbacks because they are cheap and easy to carry.
31. Work in pairs. Tick () the arguments in favour of electronic media:
access information without leaving your desk carry it around with you
take longer to read
good graphics and layout it is cheaper
can fit in your pocket
get up-to-date information instantly read something over and over
lasts a long time, doesn’t need replacing
Use argument from above to express your opinion.
Example: Thanks to electronic media, I can access any information I want without even leaving my desk.
Sadly, I can’t carry e-books around with me in the same way I can traditional books.
32.Read the title of the article. Say if you consider it possible. Give arguments to prove your point of view.
33.Read the article to find out the arguments of the author.
ARE E-BOOKS THE BOOKS OF THE FUTURE?
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A |
few |
years |
ago, |
nobody could |
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have |
imagined |
buying |
a |
whole |
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dictionary |
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or |
encyclopaedia |
on |
CD-Rom |
– |
but |
we |
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do |
now, |
and |
it’s |
a |
booming |
business. |
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Are e-books set to take over |
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from |
the |
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printed word? Well, some multimedia companies |
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are predicting that, in a few years’ time, |
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production |
of |
newspapers |
and |
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magazines |
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will have been halved, as we will be turning |
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to our computers to |
get |
the |
latest news. |
But |
how do |
people |
feel |
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about reading their daily newspaper, or even their favourite novels, on their computer screens? 0 
e
It is certainly a question that we are going to have to think about soon. Technology produces new products every day and the
publishing industry is already showing great interest in the future of the e-book. 1 
As for e-books, despite the fact that the technology has not been
fully developed yet, and an e-book that you can carry about with you |
is |
still much more expensive than an ordinary book, researchers claim |
that |
soon e-books will become much cheaper, than paper versions, and will be much more popular.
2 |
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Stephen King, the best-selling writer of horror books, posted his |
newest short story on the Internet and it sold more copies in its first days than many of his printed novels had. 3 
Well, is this really the end of the book and the newspaper? I doubt it, and it seems that even Stephen King agrees. Despite his
success on the Internet, he does not seem to think |
anything |
can |
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replace the book! This is partly because, although we |
like to |
think |
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that technology is capable of anything, it isn’t. At least, not yet! 4 |
It |
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took 25 hours for Associated Press to download Stephen |
King’s |
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story. This is because lack of band width makes it very |
slow to |
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send material, especially pictures, over the Internet. Even |
though work |
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is constantly being carried out to solve this |
problem, demand for |
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the Internet is increasing too fast for scientists |
to keep up. What is |
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more, it takes much longer for us to read |
on the net. 5 |
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There is another problem, too, which has nothing to do with technology. People simply prefer paper. It doesn’t matter how many books, magazines or newspapers are produced – we never stop buying them. It seems that we like the feel of books and magazines – we like to put them in our bags or pockets and take them out on the bus or the train on the way to work. We like to sit and read in the park or on the beach.
6 |
How many of us would exchange what we have now – |
a row of books in a bookcase, or a pile of magazines on the coffee table – for a row of little screens? For many of us, the idea of Sunday morning without a cup of coffee and a pile of newspapers is impossible.
Nevertheless, by the time e-books have become as widely available as printed ones, it is likely that at least some of us will have changed our minds.
7 
Publishers will be delighted to cater for those who prefer to use a screen, but paper lovers shouldn’t worry, as the printed page will undoubtedly keep its place in our lives. There is even news that MIT will have come up with a compromise soon - a system where we
can tell our computers what we want to read, and then they will print our own personal newspaper for us. The difference will be that we will only have to read about things which interest us. Just think – if you hate the business section, you don’t have to order it. If you dislike tennis, you can request only the football results. It sounds like this could be good news for everyone!
34. Read the article again and choose the most suitable sentence from the list (a-i) for each gap. There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use. There is an example at the beginning of the text.
a)First of all, the Internet is slow.
b)Many newspapers are already online; and you can read them on screen at home, or even on your mobile phone.
c)Even if we haven’t, it doesn’t matter, as there is probably plenty of room for both books and screens.
d)To publishers, this meant the arrival of the e-book!
e)Would you be happy to get your newspaper on the screen?
f)Did you know that we can read 50 % more quickly on paper than we can on a computer screen?
g)It looks as if people are already interested in the general idea.
h)We like to decorate our rooms with them too.
i)More than half of today’s newspapers now have websites.
35. Find the phrasal verbs in the text which mean:
think of, place inside, remove, do, move at the same speed, replace.
36. Explain the meaning of the following words:
Booming is … . To predict is … . To halve is … .
To post on the Internet is … . To download is … .
Band width is … . To exchange is … . To cater is … .
37. Suggest synonyms for the following words from the text: ordinary, version, constantly, demand, to increase, pile, personal, to request.
38. Decide which of the following best describes the author’s main point. Give reasons.
1)Books are old fashioned.
2)The printed word will never die.
3)E-books will replace paper books.
Say how far you agree with the author.
39. Divide into two teams. One team says a word related to technology (the Internet). The other team makes up a sentence using the word. Each correct sentence gets a point. The team with the most points is the winner.
Example: Team A: Telnet.
Team B: Telnet is used to allow us to connect to a remote computer.
40. Prepare a questionnaire for the survey about the use of the Internet at your education institution. You can use these expressions to help you write the questions.
Example: What is your favourite Internet portal?
kind of information you get on the Web
the number of e-mail addresses you have
to have an anti-virus program
to send instant messages to friends
to play games online
to buy things over the Net
to be safe to shop on the Internet
to use mobile phone or PDA to access the Net
to download electronic music
to create and design own Web pages
41.Carry out a survey to find out how the students of your faculty use the Internet. The questionnaire from the previous task will help you. Analyse the collected data and draw a conclusion about frequency of applying to the Internet and the most widely used services. Say what groups of people according to the way of using the Internet can be distinguished. Present the results of your survey using PowerPoint. (Project work)
42.Join two parts into a whole word:
1) |
Onl- |
a) |
-ork |
2) |
Fi- |
b) |
-nel |
3)Comp-
4)Netw-
5)Pers-
6)Li-
7)De-
8)Elec-
9)Netw-
10)Chan-
11)Dow-
12)Ac-
13)Mess-
14)Commun-
15)Infor-
16)Mo-
17)Bl-
18)Scr-
19)Con-
20)Pod-
c)-onal
d)-age
e)-ication
f)-vice
g)-ractive
h)-mation
i)-ine
j)-cast
k)-nk
l)-bile
m)-tronic
n)-een
o)-tent
p)-nload
q)-uter
r)-og
s)-le
t)-cess
43.Guess the following words:
a)basing on the context of the sentence (pay attention to the correspondence between the numbers and the letters: the same number means the same letter, fill in the table below).
1)One of the most popular Internet activities is 1∙2∙3∙4.
2)You can send a 5∙6∙7∙7∙3∙8∙6 with your mobile phone or with electronic 5∙3∙9∙10.
3)To create a network you should 10∙9∙11∙12 several units (documents, computers, etc.).
4)The 13∙6∙14 is a network of interconnected documents.
5)A person who uses this or that device is its 15∙7∙6∙16.
6)A 17∙9∙10∙6 is logical unit of a certain type (text, picture, musical composition, etc.).
7)A 18∙19∙20∙1∙3∙7∙4 is a series of digital-media files distributed over the Internet.
8)A 14∙16∙19∙13∙7∙6∙16 is computer software used to look at the Web.
9)A 12∙6∙21∙14∙19∙3∙16∙20 is a device used for inputing the text into the computer.
10)22∙3∙23∙3 5∙6 is the most common platform for mobile games.
Number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10